Optical pulse compressing based on chirped fiber bragg gratings for pulse amplification and fiber lasers

ABSTRACT

Techniques and devices for using a chirped fiber Bragg grating to compress amplified laser pulses.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This patent document claims the benefits of the U.S. provisionalapplication No. 61/269,979 entitled “Chirped fiber Bragg grating (CFBG)optical pulse compressor for all fiber chirped pulse amplifier system”and filed by Anthony Hong Lin on Jul. 1, 2009, the entire disclosure ofwhich is incorporated by reference as part of this document.

BACKGROUND

This document relates to generation and control of laser pulses,including optical pulse compressor and optical pulse amplifiers andpulse lasers.

Various optical amplifiers are designed to amplify light by providing anoptical gain at the same wavelength of the light to be amplified so thatthe light, after transmitting through an optical gain medium of theoptical amplifier, is amplified in its power or energy and the amplifiedlight is at the same wavelength of the original light prior to theamplification. The optical gain of the optical amplifier can be obtainedby pump light that optically excites the optical gain medium such as aNd or Yb doped fiber amplifier, or by an electrically energized gainmedium such as a semiconductor optical amplifier based on quantum wellsand other gain mechanisms.

SUMMARY

This document describes techniques and devices for using a chirped fiberBragg grating to compress amplified laser pulses and applications inpulse amplification devices and pulse fiber lasers. Variousimplementations are described in detail in the drawings, the descriptionand the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows one example of a pulsed laser having a pulse stretcher, anoptical amplifier and a pulse compressor.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show an example of a chirped fiber Bragg gratingcompressor that can be used in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 illustrates an operation of the chirped fiber Bragg gratingcompressor in FIGS. 2 and 3.

FIGS. 5A and 5B show simulation of fiber nonlinear pulse compressionwhere FIG. 5A shows the pulse parameter before nonlinear pulsecompression and FIG. 5B shows the pulse parameter after nonlinear pulsecompression.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a pulsed laser system for two-photon imaging.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Optical fiber used in various fiber systems and devices can exhibit oneor more nonlinear optical effects. Such nonlinear optical effects inoptical fiber can be undesirable in some application while desirable inothers.

For example, stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) is a non-linear opticalinteraction of light and optical phonon in the material when theintensity of light at an optical wavelength exceeds a SRS threshold.When SRS occurs, a Raman signal is generated in the same propagationdirection of the original light by the non-linear SRS process in themedium at a Raman frequency that is shifted from the optical frequencyof the original light by a Raman frequency detuning. The Raman frequencyis usually lower than the frequency of the original light and can behigher than the frequency of the original light. In SRS, the originallight acts as the pump light for generating the Raman signal and theenergy of the original light is depleted and is transferred into theRaman signal via the SRS process. The SRS process in silica fiber, forexample, has a Raman frequency detuning of 13.2 THz.

The SRS can lead to undesired effects in optical pulse amplification infibers and other optical media. For example, as the intensity of theoptical pulses increases to reach the SRS threshold level, the opticalpower in the optical pulses is depleted and thus the SRS process puts anupper limit to the optical power of the optical pulses.

In addition, optical nonlinear effects such as self-phase modulation(SPM) based on Kerr effect can accumulate as the pulses propagate andSPM usually generate new spectral components and nonlinear chirp, makingit difficult to obtain short pulses which are desirable in variouspulsed laser applications, such as laser material processing and otherapplications. Therefore, various optical pulse amplification techniquesare developed to first stretch the optical pulses in the time domain toreduce the pulse peak power under the SRS threshold and to mitigate theaccumulation of the optical nonlinear effects during the opticalamplification process. After amplification of the stretched opticalpulses, the amplified optical pulses are then compressed in time toproduce desired short optical pulses.

In this regard, consider fiber lasers and amplifiers. Fiber lasers andamplifiers can have certain advantages over other laser and amplifiersystems, such as compactness, maintenance-free operation, andcost-effectiveness. Due to the waveguiding nature, fibers can providegood beam quality in guided light without the need of complex optics forshaping the optical beam. The waveguiding nature of fibers, however,also renders it difficult to amplify short pulses with high peak powerlevels. Notably, small fiber cores in fibers lead to high opticalintensity of the confined light and thus trigger optical nonlineareffects. Certain fiber amplifier systems are implemented based thechirped-pulsed amplification (CPA) to avoid or mitigate the undesirednonlinearity accumulation in fiber carrying optical pulses. In CPA, theoptical pulse is first stretched in the time domain to reduce its peakpower and the nonlinearity accumulation inside the high gain fiberamplifiers, and subsequently, amplified stretched pulses are compressed.In order to obtain higher energy output pulses, the stretching of theoptical pulses is increased to increase the ratio between the stretchedpulse duration and the compressed pulse duration. An optical pulsestretcher can be implemented with optical fiber or a CFBG to provide afiber compatible package without requiring bulky free space optics. Suchfiber systems may need to adopt free-space optics such as diffractiongratings to provide sufficient pulse compression. However, adoptingfree-space optics may compromise the long-term reliability and thecompactness of the fiber system. In addition, it can be difficult toachieve very short pulses after the recompression due to variousfactors. For example, pulse stretching and compression are usually donewith a large ratio, such as a pulse stretch to 100 ps (e.g., up to 1 nsto 2 ns) in the pulse duration and a pulse compression down to 0.1 to0.2 ps in the pulse duration. Such a compression ratio of 1000 (up to10,000 to 20,000) to 1 or 2 require precision match of the dispersionsigns and magnitudes of the pulse stretcher and the pulse compressorwhile taking into account of the contribution of other fiber componentsalong the paths of the optical pulses. For another example, thehigher-order dispersion is not perfectly compensated, either bymismatching between the stretcher and compressor or the accumulation ofhigher order dispersion during the amplification.

In the devices and techniques described in this document, a pulsestretcher is used upstream from the optical power amplifier to reducethe pulse peak power and a pulse compressor is placed downstream of theoptical power amplifier to compress the pulse duration and to increasethe pulse peak power. The compressor can produce a relatively high peakoutput power and thus propagation of such compressed optical pulses infiber can lead undesired nonlinear optical effects and pulse broadening.In the exemplary implementations of the devices and techniques describedin this document, the output optical path of the compressed opticalpulses by the pulse compressor is separate from the input optical pathwhich can be a fiber line and is primarily in free space based on freespace optics to reduce the undesired nonlinear optical effects and pulsebroadening in the post-compression process.

In practical implementations, it can be beneficial to have either thedispersion of the pulse stretcher or/and pulse compressor finely tunableduring the final optimization of the system to achieve short opticalpulses. In implementing the devices and techniques described in thisdocument, a combination of a fiber pulse stretcher and a CFBG compressorcan be used to provide desired fine tunablity of the pulse stretcherdispersion to achieve a short pulse at the CFBG compressor. For example,to achieve 0.1 ps compressed pulse, the dispersion mismatch may be setto be less than 0.005 ps² which corresponds to a fiber length of 0.2 mbased on the fact that the fiber dispersion at 1550 nm is about 0.025ps²/m. This is a convenient length to control using standard fiberfusion splicer during the final stage of making the compressed pulse.Since the CFBG can be design to have a wide range of group velocitydispersion (GVD) values and higher order dispersion, the CFBG compressorcan be designed to achieve a wide range of compression ratios. Thecombination of fiber pulse stretcher and CFBG compressor offer designstage flexibility as well as fine tuning capability at manufacturingstage.

The parabolic pulse amplification technique is an alternative to the CPAtechnique and uses the normal dispersion in optical fibers incombination with a positive gain in the fiber amplifier to produce alinearly chirped stretched optical pulse. In the parabolic pulseamplification, both the spectral and temporal pulse shape exponentiallybroadens along the fiber. The broadening factor depends on the inputpulse energy and the gain in the amplifying fiber. The stretchedparabolic pulse may be subsequently compressed through anotherfiber-type element, such as photonic crystal fibers. Thus, thecombination of the parabolic pulse amplification technique along withthe pulse-compression photonic crystal fiber can be used to achieve anall-fiber high energy short-pulse laser system.

FIG. 1 shows an example of an all fiber CPA device based on a chirpedfiber Bragg grating (CFBG) pulse compressor. A seed pulsed laser 110,e.g., a mode locked fiber laser, is provided to generate laser light ofshort optical pulses which can have, e.g., a pulse width ofsub-picosecond to a few piconseconds. The wavelength of the laser lightfrom the laser 110 can be in various wavelengths, such as within thespectral band of Er, Er/Yb fibers around 1.55 μm, Yb fibers around 1 μm,Ho fibers around 2 μm or other rear earth element doped fiber gainbands. The laser power of the laser 110 can be in various ranges, e.g.,few miliwatts. The output of mode-locked fiber laser 110 can be fed intoan optional fiber amplifier/pulse conditioner 120 which is designed toboost up the pulse energy from mode-locked fiber laser 110. The fiberamplifier/pulse conditioner 120 can also recondition the optical pulseto have a desirable characteristic for the whole CPA device. One ofcharacteristics, for example, is to have a wide bandwidth of the opticalpulses. A wide bandwidth enables a short compressed pulse width atoutput. Another example of desirable characteristics is a linear chirpin the wide spectral width. Linear chirp makes it feasible to compressthe stretched pulse to a high quality low pedestal pulse. As an example,a fiber amplifier with a normal dispersion can be used in the fiber toachieve both high energy and linear chirp output. Such a pulse amplifieris known as a parabolic amplifier. In various implementations, the inputof parabolic fiber amplifier should have an appropriate energy and otherparameters within a wide boundary. Under proper operating conditions,the parabolic amplifier can produce a linear chirp output at a highenergy with stable output characteristics. The output of a parabolicfiber amplifier can be insensitive to the parameters of input pulse andthis property can improve the stability of the CPA system. In someimplementations of the device in FIG. 1, the Fiber Amplifier/Pulseconditioner 120 may be eliminated, e.g., when the mode-locked laser 110already produces desired characteristic for the CPA system.

In FIG. 1, a pulse stretcher 130 is used to stretch laser pulses to awide pulsewidth and may be implemented by a device with a group velocitydispersion. The pulse stretcher 130 can be implemented in form of afiber pulse stretcher for robust operation, compact size and lightweightthan various bulk grating based stretchers. For example, a fiber pulsestretcher can be a fiber grating stretcher which is constructed by, forexample, (1) a single mode fiber (polarization maintaining ornon-polarization maintaining) with its material dispersion and waveguidedispersion, or (2) a Chirp Fiber Bragg Grating (CFBG). Some ofadvantages of using a single fiber pulse stretcher are that such a pulsestretcher is adjustable and readily available at a relatively low price.The fiber pulse stretcher 130 can be designed so that the dispersion ofthe fiber pulse stretcher 130 is adjustable to facilitate the deviceoptimization. For example, the dispersion of the adjustable fiber pulsestretcher 130 can be finely tuned at the final stage of the CPA systemoptimization. The widely available fiber fusion splicing technologymakes it easy to fine tune the fiber length of the fiber pulse stretcher130 with ease and good reliability. The advantage of a CFBG stretcher iscompact and highly engineerable characteristics such as second orderdispersion and third order dispersion. Fiber pulse stretchers can bedesigned to stretch a pulse to few picoseconds to several nanoseconds.

As an option for the CPA in FIG. 1, a pulse picker 140 can be placedafter or before the pulse stretcher 130. The pulse picker modifies thepulse repetition rate to a lower rate by picking pulses of a pulse trainto produce a modified pulse train at a lower pulse repetition rate. Oneexample of a pulse picker 130 is an Acoustic Optical (AO) modulator oran Electro Optical (EO) modulator. Such a modulator is driven by anelectrical gating signal to pick pulses from pulses generated by theseed laser 110. As such, the pulse picker 140 reduces the number ofpulses for further amplification. This allows a higher energy per pulseto be achieved. The pulse picker 140 is not used in systems where theseed laser 110 produces a pulse train at a desirable pulse repetitionrate.

In FIG. 1, an optical power amplifier 150 is provided for boosting theoptical pulse energy. This optical power amplifier 150 can beimplemented in various configurations. Some examples are a core pumpfiber amplifier, a double clad fiber amplifier, a combination of a corepump fiber amplifer and a double clad fiber amplifier, and otheramplifier designs such as solid state laser amplifiers. A solid statelaser gain medium can be optically pumped by, e.g., diode lasers orflash light pump. In various amplifier designs, solid state laseramplifiers can be used to provide the last stage amplification in amulti-stage amplifier design due to their large cross sections.Exemplary materials used for solid state amplifiers include Nd:YAG, YLF,Nd:glass, and others.

The optical power amplifier 150 can include two or more stages ofoptical amplifiers cascaded in series. Multistage amplifiers can offerhigher gains than single stage amplifiers. Although it is possible todesign a single stage amplifier with a large gain, a single stage largegain amplifier in many designs tends to suffer the drawback of largebackward amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise and low powerefficiency. One example for implementing the optical power amplifier 150can include a fiber core amplifier, a double clad fiber amplifier, andthen a large core double clad amplifier. The last stage of the amplifier150 in a multi-stage amplifier design can be a solid state laseramplifier to achieve a high output peak power without sufferingnonlinear effects due to less focused beam on the solid state lasermaterial.

One design consideration for the fiber amplifier 150 is to have lownonlinear effects. The self-phase modulation (SPM), a nonlinear effectcommonly occurs in fiber, can make the output pulse difficult tocompress. Raman effects in fiber can undesirably shift the wavelength ofthe output beam to a longer value. These and other nonlinear effects arerelated to the power intensity in the amplifier. The pulse stretcher 130upstream from the optical power amplifier 150 produces stretched pulsesto reduce the peak power of the optical pulses entering the opticalpower amplifier 150. In addition to using the pulse stretcher 130, thenonlinear effects in the optical pulses can also be reduced by usingshort fiber with a large core area which reduces the optical intensitiesof the optical pulses.

In FIG. 1, the last stage of the CPA 100 is a pulse compressor 160downstream from the optical power amplifier 150 to compress theinitially stretched optical pulses. The pulse compressor 160 isstructured based on one of the CFBG compressors described in thisdocument. This compressor 160 is compact, lightweight and robust and canbe used to facilitate all fiber construction for a CPA device.

Notably, the pulse compressor 160 has separate input port 161 and outputport 162 so that the compressed optical pulses produced by the pulsecompressor 160 propagate along a different output optical path from thatof the amplified and stretched optical pulses that enter the input port161. This separation is provided so that the compressed optical pulseswith a higher peak power produced by the pulse compressor 160 can behandled via carefully controlled output path to avoid undesirednonlinear optical effects due to the high peak power.

The optical path 170 between the optical power amplifier 150 and thepulse compressor 160 can be a waveguide such as a delivery fiber asshown or a path based on free space optics. For some applications, theuse of the delivery fiber line 170 is advantageous because the deliveryfiber line 170 is light weight, flexible and has a relatively lowoptical loss when compared with a mirror directed free space deliverypath. For example, in various biomedical applications and materialprocessing uses, the delivery fiber 170 allows an optical headcontaining the CFBG pulse compressor 160 to be a compact unit that canbe situated at various target locations to deliver the compressedoptical pulses with high peak power. The delivery fiber 170 also can bebended or routed to accommodate for the available space for routing thelight to a target which can be a sample under imaging, therapy, surgeryor diagnosis, or a piece of a material to be cut or treated.

On the other hand, the delivery fiber line 170 can also cause undesirednonlinear optical effects in the amplified optical pulses propagatingfrom the amplifier 150 to the pulse compressor 160. As such, thedelivery fiber line 170 can be configured based on the optical power ofthe optical pulses to keep a undesired nonlinear effect below anacceptable level. For typical commercial fiber used in fibercommunications, the fiber nonlinear coefficient is approximately γ=10⁻³/m-watt. For many applications, the nonlinear effects are tolerable oracceptable if the following condition is met:

γPL<<1,

where P is the peak optical power in Watt, and L is the fiber length inmeter. Under this rough estimation, fiber delivery of compressed pulseswith a peak power more than few kilowatts is not feasible due toundesired nonlinear optical effects such as SPM and Raman. Theseparation of the input path to the CFBG pulse compressor and the outputpath of the CFBG pulse compressor 160 shown in FIG. 1 offers a way toconstruct a very light weight compressor 160 as an optical head fordelivering the compressed optical pulses of high peak power to a targetwithout using the delivery fiber line 170, and to deliver stretchedoptical pulses with low peak optical power (e.g., tens of watts) to theCFBG compressor 160 through the delivery fiber line 170 without causingsignificant undesired nonlinear optical effects in the delivery fiberline 170. Under this design, the length of the delivery fiber line 170can vary with specific requirements of an application, and can be, e.g.,from several meters to tens of meters.

Specific examples of the CFBG compressor 160 in FIG. 1 are providedbelow.

FIG. 2 shows one example 200 of the CFBG compressor 160.

The input optical port 161 is provided to receive input laser pulses atan input laser pulse repetition rate and polarized in an input linearpolarization. A polarizing beam splitter 220 is provided to be inoptical communication with the input optical port 161, e.g., via freespace or a waveguide, to receive the input laser pulses and to directthe received input laser pulses along an optical path 221 out of thepolarizing beam splitter 220 at the output port 162. When the deliveryfiber line 170 shown in FIG. 1 is used to direct the amplified stretchedoptical pulses from the optical power amplifier 150 to the pulsecompressor 160, an input fiber collimator 210 can be provided to eitherin communication with or part of the input port 161. The output end ofthe delivery fiber line 170 is coupled to the input fiber collimator 210to collimate the light out of the delivery fiber line 170. A chirpedfiber Bragg grating device 240 is located in the optical path 221 toreceive the input laser pulses from the polarizing beam splitter 220 andincludes a fiber terminal section held by a fiber collimator 242 thatreceives light from the polarizing beam splitter 220 via the opticalpath 221 and is sufficiently short in length to minimize or reduce pulsebroadening or a nonlinear optical effect in each optical pulsepropagating through the fiber terminal section. The chirped fiber Bragggrating device 240 includes a chirped fiber Bragg grating section 244connected to the fiber terminal section to reflect the input laserpulses and to compress pulse durations in the reflected optical pulsesto produce reflected optical pulses with compressed pulse durations.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, a polarization rotator 230 is located in theoptical path 221 between the polarizing beam splitter 220 and thechirped fiber Bragg grating device 240 to control the polarization ofthe reflected light from the polarization rotator 230 the chirped fiberBragg grating device 240 to be orthogonal to the polarization of thelight that is directed to the chirped fiber Bragg grating device 240. AFaraday rotator can be implemented as the polarization rotator 230 torotate polarization of light by 45 degrees when the light passes throughthe Faraday rotator 230 and to collect and transmit the reflectedoptical pulses from the chirped fiber Bragg grating device 240 withcompressed pulse durations to the polarizing beam splitter 220 whichdirects the reflected optical pulses from the Faraday rotator 230 withcompressed pulse durations along an output path 222 that is separatedfrom the input path 223 of the input laser pulses to the polarizing beamsplitter 220.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the design of the chirped fiber Bragg gratingdevice 240. In this example, the fiber collimator 242 includes acollimator lens in optical communication with the fiber terminal section310 of the chirped fiber Bragg grating device 240 to receive the inputlaser pulses from the Faraday rotator 230 and to direct the reflectedoptical pulses from the chirped fiber Bragg grating device 240 towardsthe Faraday rotator 230. A collimator housing 340 is provided to holdthe collimator lens 350 relative to the fiber terminal section 310 ofthe chirped fiber Bragg grating device 240. A fiber ferrule 320, e.g., aglass ferrule, holds the fiber terminal section 310 at a tilted positionrelative to the optical axis of the collimator lens 350 and is fixed tothe collimator housing 340. The end facet 330 of the fiber terminalsection 310 forms an angle relative to a longitudinal direction of thefiber terminal section 310. The end facet is located at the focal pointof the collimator lens 350 and has an end angle of, e.g., 8 degrees andthe ferrule 329 is tilted at e.g., 3.8 degrees. Notably, under thisdesign, the fiber terminal section 310 of the chirped fiber Bragggrating device 240 is sufficiently short in length to minimize or reducea nonlinear optical effect in each optical pulse propagating through thefiber terminal section 310 and is free from a fiber splicing junctionwith another fiber.

In some implementations, one end of the Chirped Fiber Bragg Gratingfiber, usually the blue end with larger chirped grating periods than theother red end, is inserted into the glass ferrule 320. The ferrule 320is polished (usually angle polished) to yield optical finish fiber end330. An anti-reflection coating can be applied to the end 330 to reducereflection from about 4% to about 0.1%. The polished fiber glass ferrule320 is inserted into the collimator housing 340. The fiber end isaligned to near the focal point of the collimating lens 350 to form afiber collimator.

The Chirp fiber Bragg grating (CFBG) in the above design is used tocompress high energy chirp optical pulse. The CFBG is put into amicro-optical setup which reduces nonlinearity of the fiber. The setupalso enables using the fiber nonlinear effect of the fiber terminalsection 310 and the CFGB section 244 to compress pulses to shorter pulsewidth than a linear compression system. This pulse compressor enablesconstruction of all fiber chirped pulse amplification system at a higherenergy.

Referring to FIG. 1, this configuration also facilitates matching ofdispersion of the pulse stretcher 130, in which dispersion isproportional to the fiber length and the dispersion in the CFBGcompressor 160, which are usually fixed after fabrication.

Fiber lasers have many advantages including compactness,maintenance-free operation, and cost-effectiveness, compared to otherlasers. Due to waveguiding nature of optical fibers, they are superiorwhen the beam quality is concerned. However, the same waveguiding naturerenders it difficult to amplify short pulses with high peak power. Thehigh peak power of the laser pulses causes Kerr effects in fibermaterial, which gives rise to undesired nonlinearities such asself-phase modulation. Once the pulse experience the accumulation ofnonlinearities, it becomes difficult to obtain short pulses. A Chirpedpulse amplifier system (CPA) is a method to get short pulse and highenergy. The basic idea is that the low energy short optical pulse ispassing through a stretcher to obtain wide pulsewidth. A stretcher istypically a setup with large group velocity dispersion. The stretchedpulse is then passing through high power optical amplifier to boost theenergy of optical pulse. The wide pulsewidth reduces the peak power inthe optical amplifier, therefore reduce the nonlinearity. The highenergy stretched pulse is then passing through a optical pulsecompressor to obtain short optical pulse typically much smaller than apicosecond. An optical pulse compressor is typically a setup withopposite group velocity dispersion of that of an optical pulsestretcher.

In FIG. 1, the energy level of optical pulses at the optical compressor160 can be much higher (e.g., 10-1,000,000 times) than that at theoptical pulse stretcher 130 due to optical amplification of the opticalamplifier 150 between the pulse stretcher 130 and the pulse compressor160. Managing the optical nonlinearity is a major concern in such asystem. Many single mode fiber compressor designs can only tolerateoptical pulse energy of a few nanojoules due to limited core diameter ofmost single mode fibers and the long fiber length required to achievethe required compression. A chirped fiber Bragg grating can be coupledby fusion splice to another fiber to construct a pulse compressor. Theexisting fusion splice technologies need 0.1-1 meter of fiber length forthe fusion spice and this length of fiber in the fusion spliceintroduces optical nonlinearities that limit the energy level ofcompressed optical pulses less than a few nanojoule.

The design of the CFBG compressor shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 provides theCFBG chirped fiber Bragg grating in a mico-optics setup to achieve ahigh energy (e.g., several nano joules to greater than 100 nanojoules)compression in a compact form. By using micro optics as shown in FIGS. 2and 3, the lead length for the fiber terminal section 310 of the CFBGdevice 240 can be cut down to few mm length which is one to three orderof magnitude less than what can be achieved in fusion splice and othertechniques. In implementations, the length of the fiber terminal section310 can be a few millimeters and less than 10 centimeters. This designlets short pulses and high energy pulses to propagate in fiber for asignificant distance. This reduces nonlinear interaction length andincrease maximum compressible pulse energy.

The present CFBG compressor design can also be used to compress theoptical pulses further in the fiber to achieve a shorter pulsewidth thanthat of a linear pulse compressor. Optical fiber has nonlinear opticalself-phase modulation (SPM), which can generate new frequencycomponents. With optimal control of SPM and dispersion, a significantpulse compression can be achieved in the CFBG compressor a micro-opticssetup.

In matching dispersion of the pulse stretcher to the dispersion of thepulse compressor in FIG. 1, the following process can be implemented.The pulse stretcher 130 can be made of fiber in which the length can becontrolled by fusion splice, even during the finally assembly of CPAsystem. One limitation for fiber dispersive devices is that the ratio ofthe 2nd order dispersion and 3rd order dispersion is fixed for a fiberbecause the ratio is related to fiber material properties and thewaveguide design. The pulse compressor is made of a chirped fiber Bragggrating (CFBG) and its dispersion can be well controlled and engineeredprior to CPA manufacturing. Especially that 2nd order dispersion andthird order dispersion can be adjusted to various values. Thecombination of fiber stretcher and CFBG compressor offers an easy way tomatch the 2nd order dispersion as well the 3rd order dispersion duringthe manufacturing process.

In FIG. 3, the fiber length of the fiber terminal section 310 betweenthe tip of fiber end 330 and the CFBG section 242 is important todetermine the nonlinear effects during the compression. This length isminimized during a linear compression. This length of fiber can becontrolled for pulse compression when the dispersion in this part offiber is anomalous. One of the limitation of CPA is the bandwidthnarrowing in the fiber power amplifier which usually limits a Er/Ybfiber amplifier to have a bandwidth less than 20 nm. For a linearcompressor such as a bulk grating compressor, the shortest pulsewidthachievable from a 20-nm long fiber amplifier may be about 0.18 ps insome designs. This is a significant limitation to many applications. Thepresent fiber pulse compression can be used to overcome this limitation.One example of this design is to have stretched pulses with a pulseduration of 100 ps, a linear chirped bandwidth of 18 nm with a pulseenergy of 5.5 nJ. This stretched wide pulse is directed into thecollimator lens of the CFBG compressor as shown in FIG. 4.

In FIG. 3, the wide pulses enter the fiber tip 330 to propagate towardsthe fiber Bragg Grating section 242. Since the wide pulse has a low peakpower (e.g., 5.5 nJ/100 ps=55 W), the pulse reaches the fiber BraggGrating section 242 with its time domain shape and spectrum content withalmost no change. The fiber Bragg grating section 242 can be designed toproduce nearly exact opposite dispersion to compress the spectralcontents in the wide pulse to a short pulse. The Bragg grating section242 can be designed to have a high reflectivity (e.g., 90%) so that thereflected pulse has 5 nJ energy. The fiber Bragg Grating section 242 canbe designed to short (e.g., about 1 cm) for compressing 100-ps pulses,the pulses are linearly compressed to about 0.2 ps. This 0.2 ps pulsewith 5 nJ pulse energy has a peak power of about 25,000 W. This pulseexperiences a high SPM which generates a new spectral content thatinteracts with anomoulus dispersion to compress the pulse to a shortwidth. For example, a 0.2 ps, 5 nJ pulse can be so compressed to 77 fspulsewidth in a PM panda fiber (MFD=10.5 μm, D=17 ps/nm/km) with peakpower greater than 40,000 W.

FIGS. 5A and 5B show simulation of fiber nonlinear pulse compressionwhere FIG. 5A shows the pulse parameter before nonlinear pulsecompression and FIG. 5B shows the pulse parameter after nonlinear pulsecompression in a 80 mm long PM panda fiber. This extra length of fiberis what is shown as the fiber section 310 in FIG. 3.

For fiber laser at 1 μm band, normal fiber has normal dispersion. Thelinear CFBG pulse compression can be done by keep the fiber after theBragg Grating short, e.g. about several millimeters in someimplementations. To achieve nonlinear pulse compression, the CFBG can beformed on a special photonics crystal fiber which has anomalousdispersion at 1 μm, or the light output from CFBG pulse compressor canbe coupled back into a special fiber (such as photonics crystal fiber)with anomalous dispersion.

Notably, the device in FIGS. 1-3 can be designed to control properdispersion and self-phase modulation to achieve pulse compression basedon a soliton effect within the device. Referring to FIG. 3, the fibersection 310 is designed or structured to have an anomalous groupvelocity dispersion. The high peak power pulse output by the CFBGgrating generates SPM when the compressed pulses pass through the fibersection 310. The dispersion and the SFM effects in the fiber section 310can act as a compressor by itself to cause soliton pulse compression.The soliton pulse compression mechanism in the fiber section 310 isrelated to a fundamental property of higher-order solitons.

FIGS. 5A and 5B show the simulation of a practical example of such acompression based on the soliton effect and show the optical pulseevolution in the fiber section 310 with the SPM, dispersion and Ramaneffects.

Referring to FIG. 2, the compressed pulses output by the CFBG pulsecompressor at the output port 162 can be further converted to opticalpulses at a different optical wavelength using a nonlinear opticaldevice 260 (e.g., a nonlinear crystal). Focusing optics can be used tofocus the compressed optical pulses into the nonlinear crystal at theoutput of the CFBG compressor to cause conversion of energy of thefocused input optical pulses to energy of new optical pulses at otherwavelengths based on a nonlinear optical effect, e.g., frequencydoubling of a second harmonics generator (SHG). Frequency tripling andquadrupling nonlinear effects can be also use to convert the wavelengthto even shorter output wavelengths. IN addition, other nonlineareffects, such as, nonlinear optical parametric process and differencefrequency generation techniques, can be used to convert the wavelengthto longer wavelengths by placing a proper nonlinear optical crystal atthe output of the CFBG compressor under proper optical pumpingconditions. The high peak power obtained after the pulse compressionmake the above nonlinear conversion efficient.

The CFBG compressor 160 can be made of a single mode fiber to produce anoutput beam of a high beam quality. This facilitates the focusing of thelaser output into the nonlinear crystal 260. For laser pulses at 1.55μm, PPLN can be a convenient crystal to generate laser pulses at 775 nmbase don second harmonic generation by directing the amplified andcompressed laser pulses at 1.55 μm through the crystal. A collimatinglens at 780 nm can be used to collimate the laser pulses at 775 nm. Forlaser pulses at 1 μm, a Mg:PPLN, KTP or LBO crystal can be used forefficient second harmonic conversion.

The compressed optical pulses with high peak power generated from thedevice in FIG. 1 can be used in a wide range of applications, includingimaging, diagnostics, material measurements, medical treatment, surgeryand material processing. One of the important applications of shortoptical pulses is for biomedical multi-photon imaging, it requiresoptical pulse source to have high peak power to enable strongmultiphoton signal. It requires low average power to avoid thermaldamage to the live tissues. Ultrafast fiber pulse laser is a good sourcefor biomedical multi-photon imaging. Multi-Photon Imaging (MPI) mostlyinvolves two-photon microscopy. MPI is a fluorescence technique thatallows imaging living tissue up to a depth of one millimeter. Two-photonexcitation may be a viable alternative to confocal microscopy due to itsdeeper tissue penetration and reduced photooxicity.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a two-photon microscopic imaging system forobtaining images of a sample. A two-photon imaging device is provided toreceive the compressed optical pulses with high peak power generatedfrom the device in FIG. 1. The device 610 guides the optical pulses intothe sample to cause generation of two-photon fluorescence in the sampledue to localized two-photon absorption. The device 610 collects thelight of the two-photon fluorescence from the sample to obtain images ofthe sample. Two-photon excitation is based on the idea that two photonsof low energy can excite a fluorophore in a quantum event, resulting inthe emission of a fluorescence photon, typically at a higher energy thaneither of the two excitatory photons. The probability of thenear-simultaneous absorption of two photons is low. Therefore a highflux of excitation photons is required. In two-photon excitationmicroscopy an infrared laser beam is focused through an objective lens.Femtosecond fiber lasers can provide maintenance free, reliable, compactand low cost features and thus are good light sources for two-photonmicroscopy.

For machining and surgical applications, a pulse width under 1picosecond works through ablation rather than heating and melting.Energy deposited by the laser upon a surface cannot thermally propagatea significant distance into the material during the time of the pulse,so thermal effects and material stress are significantly reduced.Deposition of energy in sub-picosecond times causes the surface materialto become a plasma that consumes the pulse energy and dissipate in a gasphase, leaving a clear cutting edge. The uncut material remains inoriginal form with greatly reduced stress, fractures, melts, or otherunwanted thermal processes. In contrast, a laser with nanosecond orlonger pulses, will leave a large “heat affected zone” around thecutting edge, as well as numerous stress fractures.

In these and other applications, the device 610 in FIG. 6 is replaced bya respective optical module such as a laser head for laser cutting and alaser head for laser surgery.

Therefore, a method for amplifying laser pulses is provided. This methodincludes modifying a train of input laser pulses at an input pulserepetition rate to stretch a pulse duration of each input laser pulse toproduce a train of stretched laser pulses; directing the train ofstretched laser pulses into an optical power amplifier to amplify thestretched laser pulses; guiding the stretched laser pulses that areamplified by the optical power amplifier through an input optical path;coupling the stretched laser pulses that are amplified by the opticalpower amplifier from the input optical path into a chirped fiber Bragggrating configured as a pulse compressor, to obtain reflected opticalpulses from the chirped fiber Bragg grating with compressed pulsedurations; and directing the reflected optical pulses from the chirpedfiber Bragg grating with compressed pulse durations along an outputoptical path in free space, without going through fiber, to produceamplified output laser pulses with compressed pulse durations. Thestretching of the optical pulses can cause the pulse duration greaterthan 20 ps and the pulse duration of the reflected optical pulses fromthe chirped fiber Bragg grating can be less than 3 ps.

In addition, an optical pulse amplifier device is provided. This deviceincludes an optical pulse stretcher that modifies a train of input laserpulses at an input pulse repetition rate to stretch a pulse duration ofeach input laser pulse to produce a train of stretched laser pulses, anoptical power amplifier that amplifies power of the stretched laserpulses from the optical pulse stretcher; a delivery fiber line coupledto receive the amplified stretched laser pulses from the optical poweramplifier and to guide the amplified stretched laser pulses in a firstlinear polarization; a polarizing beam splitter that receives theamplified stretched laser pulses from the delivery fiber line in thefirst linear polarization to direct the received amplified stretchedlaser pulses along an optical path; and a chirped fiber Bragg gratingdevice located in the optical path to receive the amplified stretchedlaser pulses from the polarizing beam splitter. This chirped fiber Bragggrating device includes a fiber terminal section that receives lightfrom the polarizing beam splitter via the optical path and issufficiently short in length to minimize or reduce or minimizebroadening of each optical pulse propagating through the fiber terminalsection, and a chirped fiber Bragg grating section connected to thefiber terminal section to reflect the amplified stretched laser pulsesand to compress pulse durations in the reflected optical pulses toproduce reflected optical pulses with compressed pulse durations. Apolarization rotator is located in the optical path between thepolarizing beam splitter and the chirped fiber Bragg grating device torotate polarization of light to render the reflected optical pulses fromthe chirped fiber Bragg grating device with compressed pulse durationsin a second linear polarization that is orthogonal to the firstpolarization so that the polarizing beam splitter directs the reflectedoptical pulses from the polarization rotator with compressed pulsedurations along an output path that is separated from a path of theamplified stretched laser pulses from the delivery fiber line to thepolarizing beam splitter and is in free space without going throughfiber.

While this document contains many specifics, these should not beconstrued as limitations on the scope of an invention that is claimed orof what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions of features specificto particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in thisdocument in the context of separate embodiments can also be implementedin combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features thatare described in the context of a single embodiment can also beimplemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitablesub-combination. Moreover, although features may be described above asacting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, oneor more features from a claimed combination can in some cases be excisedfrom the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to asub-combination or a variation of a sub-combination.

Only a few examples and implementations are described. Otherimplementations, variations, modifications and enhancements to thedescribed examples and implementations may be made.

1. A method for amplifying laser pulses, comprising: modifying a trainof input laser pulses at an input pulse repetition rate to stretch apulse duration of each input laser pulse to produce a train of stretchedlaser pulses; directing the train of stretched laser pulses into anoptical power amplifier to amplify the stretched laser pulses; guidingthe stretched laser pulses that are amplified by the optical poweramplifier through an input optical path; coupling the stretched laserpulses that are amplified by the optical power amplifier from the inputoptical path into a chirped fiber Bragg grating configured as a pulsecompressor, to obtain reflected optical pulses from the chirped fiberBragg grating with compressed pulse durations; and directing thereflected optical pulses from the chirped fiber Bragg grating withcompressed pulse durations along an output optical path in free space,without going through fiber, to produce amplified output laser pulseswith compressed pulse durations.
 2. The method as in claim 1,comprising: controlling the stretched laser pulses output by the opticalpower amplifier to be in a first linear polarization; directing thestretched laser pulses from the optical power amplifier into apolarizing beam splitter which directs the stretched laser pulses fromthe optical power amplifier towards the chirped fiber Bragg grating;rotating polarization of light from the polarizing beam splitter by 45degrees before directing the light to the chirped fiber Bragg grating;rotating polarization of the reflected optical pulses from the chirpedfiber Bragg grating with compressed pulse durations by an additional 45degrees before directing the reflected optical pulses from the chirpedfiber Bragg grating to the polarizing beam splitter; and using thepolarizing beam splitter to separate the stretched laser pulses from theoptical power amplifier into the polarizing beam splitter and thereflected optical pulses with compressed pulse durations from thechirped fiber Bragg grating and to direct the reflected optical pulseswith compressed pulse durations from the chirped fiber Bragg gratingalong the output optical path in free space.
 3. The method as in claim2, wherein: the input optical path includes a delivery fiber line, andthe method comprises: using a polarization rotator located between thepolarizing beam splitter and the chirped fiber Bragg grating to rotatepolarization of light; coupling a fiber terminal of the chirped fiberBragg grating to a collimator lens that receives the amplified stretchedlaser pulses from the polarization rotator and directs the reflectedoptical pulses from the chirped fiber Bragg grating towards thepolarization rotator; and using an input fiber collimator coupled to thedelivery fiber line to direct the stretched laser pulses from theoptical power amplifier into the polarizing beam splitter.
 4. The methodas in claim 3, comprising: making the fiber terminal of the chirpedfiber Bragg grating to be short to reduce nonlinear optical effects inthe reflected optical pulses from the chirped fiber Bragg grating withcompressed pulse durations when propagating from the chirped fiber Bragggrating towards the polarizing beam splitter.
 5. The method as in claim4, wherein: the length of the fiber terminal of the chirped fiber Bragggrating is of a few millimeters.
 6. The method as in claim 4, wherein:the length of the fiber terminal of the chirped fiber Bragg grating isless than 10 centimeters.
 7. The method as in claim 4, comprising:making the reflected optical pulses from the chirped fiber Bragg gratinghave compressed pulse durations less than 3 ps.
 8. The method as inclaim 4, comprising: structuring the fiber terminal of the chirped fiberBragg grating to have a dispersion that further compresses the reflectedoptical pulses from the chirped fiber Bragg grating.
 9. The method as inclaim 4, comprising: structuring the fiber terminal of the chirped fiberBragg grating to introduce a dispersion and a self-phase modulation inthe reflected optical pulses from the chirped fiber Bragg grating tocause soliton pulse compression in the reflected optical pulses.
 10. Themethod as in claim 1, comprising: adjusting dispersion of the stretchedlaser pulses with respect to dispersion of the chirped fiber Bragggrating to optimize compressing of the reflected optical pulses.
 11. Themethod as in claim 1, wherein: the stretched laser pulses have a pulsewidth greater than 20 ps.
 12. The method as in claim 1, wherein: theoptical power amplifier includes two or more stages of optical poweramplifiers.
 13. The method as in claim 11, wherein: a last stageamplifier in the optical power amplifier is a double clad fiberamplifier.
 14. The method as in claim 11, wherein: a last stageamplifier in the optical power amplifier is a solid state opticalamplifier.
 15. The method as in claim 1, comprising: prior to directingthe train of stretched laser pulses into the optical power amplifier,modifying the train of the stretched laser pulses to have a reducedpulse repetition rate less than the input pulse repetition rate.
 16. Themethod as in claim 1, comprising: directing the amplified output laserpulses with compressed pulse durations from the polarizing beam splitterinto a nonlinear optical crystal to generate optical pulses at awavelength different from a wavelength of the amplified output laserpulses with compressed pulse durations from the polarizing beamsplitter.
 17. The method as in claim 1, comprising: directing theamplified output laser pulses with compressed pulse durations from thepolarizing beam splitter into a nonlinear optical crystal to generateoptical pulses based on second harmonic generation in the nonlinearoptical crystal.
 18. An optical pulse amplifier device, comprising: anoptical pulse stretcher that modifies a train of input laser pulses atan input pulse repetition rate to stretch a pulse duration of each inputlaser pulse to produce a train of stretched laser pulses; an opticalpower amplifier that amplifies power of the stretched laser pulses fromthe optical pulse stretcher; a delivery fiber line coupled to receivethe amplified stretched laser pulses from the optical power amplifierand to guide the amplified stretched laser pulses in a first linearpolarization; a polarizing beam splitter that receives the amplifiedstretched laser pulses from the delivery fiber line in the first linearpolarization to direct the received amplified stretched laser pulsesalong an optical path; a chirped fiber Bragg grating device located inthe optical path to receive the amplified stretched laser pulses fromthe polarizing beam splitter and including a fiber terminal section thatreceives light from the polarizing beam splitter via the optical pathand is sufficiently short in length to minimize or reduce or minimizebroadening of each optical pulse propagating through the fiber terminalsection, and a chirped fiber Bragg grating section connected to thefiber terminal section to reflect the amplified stretched laser pulsesand to compress pulse durations in the reflected optical pulses toproduce reflected optical pulses with compressed pulse durations; and apolarization rotator located in the optical path between the polarizingbeam splitter and the chirped fiber Bragg grating device to rotatepolarization of light to render the reflected optical pulses from thechirped fiber Bragg grating device with compressed pulse durations in asecond linear polarization that is orthogonal to the first polarizationso that the polarizing beam splitter directs the reflected opticalpulses from the polarization rotator with compressed pulse durationsalong an output path that is separated from a path of the amplifiedstretched laser pulses from the delivery fiber line to the polarizingbeam splitter and is in free space without going through fiber.
 19. Thedevice as in claim 18, comprising: a collimator lens coupled to thefiber terminal section of the chirped fiber Bragg grating device toreceive the amplified stretched laser pulses from the polarizationrotator and to direct the reflected optical pulses from the chirpedfiber Bragg grating device towards the polarization rotator.
 20. Thedevice as in claim 19, comprising: a collimator housing that holds thecollimator lens relative to the fiber terminal section of the chirpedfiber Bragg grating device; and a ferrule that holds the fiber terminalsection at a tilted position relative to the collimator and is fixed tothe collimator housing, wherein an end facet of the fiber terminalsection forms an angle relative to a longitudinal direction of the fiberterminal section.
 21. The device as in claim 18, wherein: the fiberterminal section is structured to have a dispersion that furthercompresses the reflected optical pulses from the chirped fiber Bragggrating.
 22. The device as in claim 18, wherein: the fiber terminalsection is structured to introduce a dispersion and a self-phasemodulation in the reflected optical pulses from the chirped fiber Bragggrating to cause soliton pulse compression in the reflected opticalpulses.
 23. The device as in claim 18, wherein: the length of the fiberterminal section of the chirped fiber Bragg grating device is of a fewmillimeters.
 24. The device as in claim 18, wherein: the length of thefiber terminal section of the chirped fiber Bragg grating device is lessthan 10 centimeters.
 25. The device as in claim 18, wherein: thereflected optical pulses from the chirped fiber Bragg grating devicehave compressed pulse durations less than 3 ps.
 26. The device as inclaim 18, wherein: the optical power amplifier includes two or morestages of optical power amplifiers.
 27. The device as in claim 26,wherein: a last stage amplifier in the optical power amplifier is adouble clad fiber amplifier.
 28. The device as in claim 26, wherein: alast stage amplifier in the optical power amplifier is a solid stateoptical amplifier.
 29. The device as in claim 18, wherein: the opticalpulse stretcher is structured to make the stretched laser pulses to havea pulse duration greater than 20 ps.
 30. The device as in claim 18,comprising: a pulse picking mechanism located between the optical pulsestretcher and the optical fiber amplifier to reduce a pulse repetitionrate of the stretched optical pulses to be less than the input pulserepetition rate.
 31. The device as in claim 18, wherein: the deliveryfiber line is a polarization-maintaining fiber.
 32. The device as inclaim 18, comprising: a pulsed laser that produces laser pulses as theinput laser pulses; and an initial optical amplifier located between thepulsed laser and the optical pulse stretcher to modify the laser pulsesfrom the pulsed laser into parabolic laser pulses which are stretched bythe optical pulse stretcher.
 33. The device as in claim 18, comprising:a nonlinear optical crystal located in the output path to receive theamplified output laser pulses with compressed pulse durations from thepolarizing beam splitter to generate optical pulses at a wavelengthdifferent from a wavelength of the amplified output laser pulses withcompressed pulse durations from the polarizing beam splitter.
 34. Thedevice as in claim 18, comprising: a nonlinear optical crystal locatedin the output path to receive the amplified output laser pulses withcompressed pulse durations from the polarizing beam splitter to generateoptical pulses based on second harmonic generation in the nonlinearoptical crystal.
 35. The device as in claim 18, comprising: a two-photonmicroscope located in the output path to receive the amplified outputlaser pulses with compressed pulse durations from the polarizing beamsplitter to produce two-photon microscopic imaging of a sample underillumination of the amplified output laser pulses.
 36. The device as inclaim 18, wherein: the polarization rotator is a Faraday rotator thatrotates polarization of light by 45 degrees.
 37. An optical pulsecompressor device, comprising: an input optical port that includes aninput fiber collimator coupled to an input fiber line to receive inputlaser pulses at an input laser pulse repetition rate and polarized in aninput linear polarization; a polarizing beam splitter to receive theinput laser pulses from the input optical port and to direct thereceived input laser pulses along an optical path out of the polarizingbeam splitter; a chirped fiber Bragg grating device located in theoptical path to receive the input laser pulses from the polarizing beamsplitter and including a fiber terminal section that receives light fromthe polarizing beam splitter via the optical path and is sufficientlyshort in length to minimize or reduce broadening of each optical pulsepropagating through the fiber terminal section, and a chirped fiberBragg grating section connected to the fiber terminal section to reflectthe input laser pulses and to compress pulse durations in the reflectedoptical pulses to produce reflected optical pulses with compressed pulsedurations; a polarization rotator located in the optical path betweenthe polarizing beam splitter and the chirped fiber Bragg grating deviceto rotate polarization of light to render the reflected optical pulsesfrom the chirped fiber Bragg grating device with compressed pulsedurations in a second linear polarization that is orthogonal to thefirst polarization so that the polarizing beam splitter directs thereflected optical pulses from the polarization rotator with compressedpulse durations along an output path that is separated from a path ofthe amplified stretched laser pulses from the delivery fiber line to thepolarizing beam splitter and is in free space without going throughfiber; a collimator lens coupled to the fiber terminal section of thechirped fiber Bragg grating device to receive the input laser pulsesfrom the polarization rotator and to direct the reflected optical pulsesfrom the chirped fiber Bragg grating device towards the polarizationrotator; a collimator housing that holds the collimator lens relative tothe fiber terminal section of the chirped fiber Bragg grating device;and a ferrule that holds the fiber terminal section at a tilted positionrelative to an optical axis of the collimator lens and is fixed to thecollimator housing, wherein an end facet of the fiber terminal sectionforms an angle relative to a longitudinal direction of the fiberterminal section, and wherein the fiber terminal section of the chirpedfiber Bragg grating device is sufficiently short in length to minimizeor reduce a nonlinear optical effect in each optical pulse propagatingthrough the fiber terminal section and is free from a fiber splicingjunction with another fiber.
 38. The device as in claim 30, wherein: theinput fiber line is an input polarization-maintaining fiber.